Agencies/New Delhi
An anti-corruption activist has alleged that Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari did not want her to pursue a multi-billion rupee irrigation scam in Maharashtra.However, the main opposition party dismissed the charge as baseless and accused the Congress of being behind a disinformation campaign. Gadkari yesterday demanded an apology from right to information (RTI) activist and India Against Corruption (IAC) member Anjali Damania.Damania claimed when she met Gadkari in Mumbai the BJP chief said he would not take a stand on the irrigation scam since he had a business relationship with Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar whose nephew Ajit Pawar resigned as Maharashtra deputy chief minister on Tuesday after he was linked to the sccandal. Gadkari has denied meeting Damania. “I give you legal notice on behalf of my client Nitin Gadkari to take immediate steps to retract forthwith false, baseless and defamatory remarks and also tender public apology promptly, failing which, I will be at liberty to initiate appropriate legal proceedings against you, for which you be solely responsible,” said the notice sent to Damania by Gadkari’s lawyer Shamshery and Associates. “My client strongly denies the false, baseless and defamatory statement that he has any business relations with Sharad Pawar. You are making such false and baseless statements only to make sensation with the object to defame my client,” the notice said.Damania told NDTV that when she met Gadkari in August he told her to not push too hard to expose the Rs720bn scam. She has alleged that Gadkari told her he has business interests with Pawar and that they extend mutual help where required. The BJP rubbished the charge by Damania against Gadkari, alleging that the “dirty tricks” department of Congress is at work to derail the opposition’s on-going national conclave. “On the eve of BJP’s national conclave a deliberate and planned effort is being made by the dirty tricks department of the Congress to defame Gadkari and to divert attention from the meet. We deny these baseless allegations,” party spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters in Surajkund where the party’s National Council meet is underway. “The people of Maharashtra know that BJP has always been in the forefront in the fight against corruption and the irrigation scam. There is only one case filed in the irrigation scam and that is a PIL filed by our party secretary Kirit Somaiya,” Javadekar said. Javadekar said BJP leader Devendra Phadnis had raised this issue three years back and demanded a White Paper. “We have raised this irrigation scam in every assembly session in Maharashtra as well as in every public meeting,” Javadekar said. The Congress urged Damania to prove her accusations.“She needs to prove it. People of IAC are prone to change stands and accuse the parliamentary system. The IAC started its campaign for Lokpal with Anna (Hazare), now they have parted ways. Until recently they were talking about Lokpal and a social movement, now they are suddenly giving a political option. We can’t take IAC claims on face value, they need to prove it,” Congress leader Jagdambika Pal said.